2034 Olympics: Space Race
Six Lasers - Grand Central Station - Space New York copied us. Honest! Grand Central Station slowly orbits the Six Lasers sun in a preplanned flight path that keeps it in as close of proximity to the other planets as possible. It serves as the central hub for all traffic, and is a major habitat for visitors who want a safe place to stay while checking out the attractions. A gleaming white beacon, the station has four main arms reaching out from a centralized cylindrical hub. Each arm is unique in the modules it it contains, though all have various antennas and docking ports jutting out at every angle. Several of the arms feature recent and ongoing construction. The station's interior is incredibly varied, able to service beings of every size and make. Even the gravity is modular. Habitat modules serve as gigantic hotels where one can check in. Recreation and theme park style attractions, including roller coasters, merry go rounds, bumper cars, and more exotic rides are available. Marketing is heavy here, as one cannot swing a Cassetticon without hitting a souvenir shop. Shuttles are available to every attraction that Six Lasers has to offer. For the lazy, the space station can be viewed here: http://images.wikia.com/transformers/images/8/85/Grandcentralspace.jpg An asteroid field has been set up as a special race arena! Two floating pylons indicate the starting "line," so to speak. Standing on an asteroid near the pylons is... "Greetings all!" says Space Ace of classic Don Bluth fame. "I'm Space Ace! And you're watching the SPACE RACE!" He poses on the asteroid, Captain Morgan-style, smirking and flexing a bicep. In case you're wondering, no, he's not wearing a space suit. "Oh, Ace!" coos his girlfriend Kimberly as she wraps her arms around him. "But this is no ordinary race!" Space Ace says. "You will be tested not just in speed, but in brains, brawn, and skill! There's no telling what you might run into out there!" Sweepcraft is just floating in the void of space, near the start "line". He's doing his best to ignore Space Ace but he can't help but wonder where the organisation his finding its officials. <> he mutters for himself. Slag arrives from the Cybertron Olympic Site - Intersection. Slag has arrived. Slag takes off on a shuttle bound for Central Spaceport - acon>. Slag has left. Firestar vanishes out of reality. Firestar has left. Jetfire folds up, shifting into a technologically superior spacecraft. Space Shuttle is at the start line on the asteroid field, ready to start the race. Now THIS is the kind of thing the Combaticon can almost get excited about...almost. He maintains his usual aloof attitude, but for once he can approve of both the setting and even the participants to some degree. Everyone here is "worthy"... they are all capable of space flight. Of course, some are more *worthy* than others... naturally a Decepticon will win this over a *mere* Autobot. He fully expects to be that Decepticon, of course. But overall, this race will be a refreshing change from having to deal with the planet-bound riffraff he usually gets stuck dealing with. Jetfire approaches the pylons that mark the starting line, watching the Decepticons with distaste. Well, another opportunity to put those arrogant glitcheads in their place. Certain ones more so than others. Yeah, like Blast Off. Tch. He might be fast, but the scientist expects that this will not be just a race, but a course full of obstacles that will require more than just speed to overcome... Space Ace smirks at Kimberly, who continues to fawn at him, then turns back to the racers at the starting line. "The first challenge is an easy one--go forward! Yes, that's it--but who can go the fastest! Now, on your marks! Get set... GO!" But just as he signals the start of the race, who should emerge on a hover platform behind him? It's Space Ace's archenemy, BORF! "Oh, no, watch out, Ace!" Kimberly says, cringing away in an exaggerated girly fashion. "Don't worry, Kimberly, I'll protect you!" Space Ace declares, puffing out his chest and stepping forward to challenge Borf. "You should worry about yourself, Space Ace!" Borf says. "Or should I say... DEXTER!" And in a shocking twist, he blasts Space Ace with the Infanto Ray, reducing him to a geeky teenager! "Oh no!" the nasally Dexter whines. Combat: Sweepcraft compares his Velocity to 90: Success! Combat: Space Shuttle compares his Velocity to 90: Success! Combat: Tech Spaceship compares his Velocity to 90: Success! Jetfire speeds forward, almost anticipating the upcoming challenges. When 'Borf' emerges, he chuckles slightly to himself. Ah, how ostentatious. He figures this is just some theatric for the audience's entertainment. After all, it is the Olympics. With a burst of flames coming from his engines, Avarice speeds forward before Space Ace gives the signal! Is anyone really surprised he's cheating? You should not. The sweep expertly dodges the first asteroids while keeping as many sensors on Blast Off and Jetfire to avoid crashing himself into a rock. He's too far from Space Ace to notice his transformation but if he was there, he would probably mock the little geek. Space Shuttle ignores the antics of the fleshlings- they are too below him for his notice. The other two racers are not, and he keeps track of them and his own position as he surges ahead confidently. He is in his element, after all. Dexter hops from one asteroid to the next awkwardly, being chased by killer robots and Borf himself. "Next, you've got to navigate through these asteroids D'WOAAAAAHHH!" Dexter hops off of an asteroid just in time before Borf annihilates it with a blast. "Blast it all, why didn't I shoot him with the Death Ray FIRST!?" Borf snarls, slamming a fist onto his hover platform's control panel. Combat: Sweepcraft compares his Agility to 90: Success! Combat: Space Shuttle compares his Agility to 90: Success! Combat: Tech Spaceship compares his Agility to 90: Success! Sweepcraft keeps dodging more asteroid and when he thinks Dexter isn't looking, he blasts those he cannot dodge. His acute senses hear what Dexter is saying, <> he asks Blast Off. < hope that pesky autobot gets hit by it!>> Jetfire dodges the asteroids easily as they drift into his path, wondering to himself if this was as hard as the course was going to get, because it isn't very difficult at all. Scanning each of the Decepticons, he debates firing upon them. <> he inquires. Space Shuttle 's scanners keep locked on each asteroid as he flies through the field. The space shuttle is quite used to dodging such cosmic hazards, and he soars through with few issues- through one small, quick moving asteroid does make him have to bank hard to the left to avoid. <> He has no concerns about brains and skill... but brawn might be a problem. Not that he'll admit that. Avarice radios him. <> Dexter suddenly transforms into the mantacular Space Ace! He's swarmed by robots, but he easily dispatches them with shots from his blaster, hardly even looking at them as he answers Jetfire's question. "Shoot your fellow racers!? Out of the question! That would be cheating!" However, the evil Borf floats alongside the racers for a moment as they dodge rocks, "Hey! Guys! Maybe it IS cheating... But if you "accidentally" ram one of the other racers, well, you couldn't be disqualified for that, RIGHT?" "OH NO! Watch out, racers!" Space Ace says, pointing at a giant asteroid ahead. "There's a giant asteroid up there, and it's taking up the entire track! There's only one way through--BLAST IT!" Combat: Space Shuttle compares his Firepower to 100: Success! Combat: Sweepcraft compares his Firepower to 100: Failure :( Combat: Space Shuttle sets his defense level to Guarded. Combat: Tech Spaceship compares his Firepower to 100: Failure :( Combat: Sweepcraft sets his defense level to Protected. Combat: Sweepcraft sets his defense level to Neutral. Sweepcraft attempts to blast through the asteroid but he can't destroyed fast enough and must slow down. Noticing that Blast Off doesn't have that kind of problem, he decides to follow the combaticon. I may as well knock him off my way later, he tells himself. <> Combat: Space Shuttle sets his defense level to Neutral. Space Shuttle hesitates for onyl the briefest of seconds as he is confronted with a giant asteroid. Ah- so they have to blast their way through, do they? <> Firepower? He has firepower!!! Weapons charge up and Blast Off sends a nice heaping dose of Orbital Bombardment the asteroid's way. He is not a bit surprised to see the asteroid crumble to space dust before him. Engaging thrusters now, he proceeds to live up to his name, and blasts off through the space he has created. <> he comments to the others.... Jetfire attempts to blast at the asteroid but his cannons are unable to penetrate all the way through. Thus he is forced to slow down and follow Blast Off through the hole the Combaticon has made. "Hm, I expected the obstacles to be a bit more interesting than large asteroids." he remarks. Combat: Tech Spaceship sets his defense level to Neutral. Tailgate leaves the hab suite. Tailgate has arrived. "Nyargh!" Space Ace cries as he shrinks down into Dexter! "Oh no!" He proceeds to continue running from Borf, hopping on bits of asteroid blasted away by Blast Off. "Well, that was a close one, guys! But watch out, you're about to enter the SPACE MAZE!" Uhoh, turns out there was a pocket dimension on the other side of that asteroid and you just flew into it! (Or it's a hologram! Or you're all insane!) Ahead of you you see impossible free-floating corridors that seem to wind round and around forever. Who's smart enough to navigate to the exit? Combat: Sweepcraft compares his Intelligence to 105: Failure :( Combat: Space Shuttle compares his Intelligence to 105: Failure :( Combat: Tech Spaceship compares his Intelligence to 105: Failure :( Sweepcraft enters the maze, leaves the others at an intersection and promptly get lost. He howls in frustration as he reaches another intersectionfor the tenth times. < swear they are moving the access or I would have been out of here in mere minutes! WHERE'S THE EXIT???>> The frustrated sweep blasts a couple of walls as he resumes his travel across the maze. Space Shuttle suddenly finds the universe seems to have done a backflip while he was blasting his way through the asteroid. <> His sensors and scanners are giving him conflicting data. The Combaticon shuttle has seen a LOT in his eons of time spent exploring the galaxy... but he can't quite seem to make heads or tails of what he's experiencing now. Corridors that wind around forever and come back again? Did he just enter the Escher dimension or something? Frustrated and not wanting to lose his lead, the shuttle compares star charts of known constellations in this galaxy against the nonsense he's surrounded with. Ok, just... think of this like you are dealing...with annoying riffraff. Be aloof and in control... Block out the nonsensical extraneous data, and focus on what he knows- space. Focus on where you KNEW the stars just were... Finally getting aligned with his surroundings again, Blast Off picks out a possible exit and heads for it. Luckily, he chose correctly and proceeds out of the maze. Jetfire finds a labyrinth on the other side of the asteroid. Oh, now this is getting interesting, finally! Hence, he gets carried away with studying the otherwordly obstacle and how exactly it was that the track engineers were able to interpolate such a complex hurdle. Quickly losing the others, he hopes to make it out before the Decepticons do. Eventually the racers find their way out of the maze, though it takes them an absurdly long time. When they do, they find Borf and Space Ace pleasantly chatting on a floating space station. "Man, how do you get those abs?" Borf says, hovering by Ace. "I've been getting a gut lately." He sighs. "Gotta watch those beers, Borf-o!" Space Ace says, grinning. "I just do a ton of crunches, and I stay away from carbohyd--" He notices the racers emerging from the maze. "OH SH--uh, have at you Borf!" He fires his laser awkwardly at Borf, not landing a single shot. "Uh, yeah, die Space Ace!" Borf growls, firing back with as much effectiveness. "But, uh, the racers die--will die! First! Because they are TRAPPED in my TRAP! Nyahahaha!" After Borf presses a button on his hover platform, a shimmering field of glowing hexagons erects itself around the station just as the racers enter! "OH NO!" Space Ace says. "The only way through is to hack the space station's forceshield generator and make one of those hexagon thingies go away so you can fly through it!" Combat: Sweepcraft compares his Technical to 100: Failure :( Combat: Space Shuttle compares his Technical to 100: Success! Tailgate somehow ended up inside of Jetfire when he embarked on this race. Hence which is why he is peering in fascination out one of the space shuttle's windows, watching innocently as events unfold outside Jetfire. "Are we almost there yet?" he asks in a child like manner. Sweepcraft transforms and lands on the platform. He quickly attempts to hack the console by punching random keys on the keyboard but it's not working, "WHY IS IT NOT WORKING." He points a pistol at Space Ace, "You're the hero here. FREE ME OR DIE!" In desperation, Avarice launches himself at the shield and start to drain itwith some luck he will be able to pass through it once it's weakened... but where are going to be the others? The sweepcraft splits open and unfold, revealing the sweep known as Avarice. Space Shuttle emerges through the maze, still first, it appears. Good! the shuttle flies triumphantly along, only to be confronted with another trap. Well, it's never dull around here, that's for sure. He transforms, studying the situation. The hexagons cover the area, blocking his exit. Hmmm. He's not a scientist, but he has experience with all sorts of things as a space explorer- and a mercenary. He's seen this sort of forcefield before. There's usually a generator somewhere. Looking around, he spots it and flies down. He inputs data, opening up one of the hexagons. Transforming back into alt mode, he rockets off through the hole and continues on. <> Combat: Tech Spaceship compares his Technical to 100: Success! Combat: 1986 Pontiac Trans-Am compares his Leadership to 90: Failure :( Combat: Tech Spaceship compares his Leadership to 100: Failure :( Suddenly, Jetfire realizes that Tailgate is inside him. How the slag? "Ah--Tailgate. What a surprise." Ugh, he really needs to pay more attention to these things. "How did you...when did you--" he sighed. "Oh, never mind." The scientist just hopes the minibot won't come to harm as a result of this. "I commend your theatrics, Ace, but perhaps you ought to be a bit more alert?" he comments, chuckling at the two of them as they scramble to get back in character. And then a hexagonal-patterned containment field begins to activate around the station. But nothing a bit of hacking can't take care of! A small drone is deployed from a compartment, and attaches itself to the bottom of Borf's platform. One of the panels in front of Jetfire disappears and he flies through. Space Ace just laughs at Avarice. "Go ahead and try it, evil-doer!" And then, of course, he transforms back into Dexter at that exact moment. "OH NO!" he shrieks, fleeing for a shuttle parked on the station. Avarice could have tried to go for him, maybe, but it's just as likely that Dexter would dodge him in some unlikely fashion, just as he is now dodging lasers from Borf. While the robots manage to break free of their shield in their own way, either by hacking or, in Avarice's case, draining it of its energy slowly,and they escape! Just as Dexter lifts off on his shoulder, he gets a message from Kimberly on his viewscreen! "Watch out, Ace! Those dumb robots accidentally overloaded the reactor and it's going to explode!" "OH NO!" Dexter cries, pushing the shuttle into overdrive, Borf chasing him, completely oblivious. And indeed, the station soon erupts into a massive explosion as its reactor core breaches! You have to push your engines to the limit to get free--and get to the last waypoint before everyone else! Combat: Avarice compares his Velocity to 140: Failure :( Combat: Tech Spaceship compares his Velocity to 140: Failure :( Combat: Space Shuttle compares his Velocity to 140: Failure :( Combat: Avarice compares his Velocity to 140: Failure :( Combat: Tech Spaceship compares his Velocity to 140: Failure :( Combat: Space Shuttle compares his Velocity to 140: Failure :( Combat: Avarice compares his Velocity to 140: Failure :( Combat: Tech Spaceship compares his Velocity to 140: Failure :( Combat: Space Shuttle compares his Velocity to 140: Failure :( Combat: Avarice compares his Velocity to 140: Failure :( Combat: Tech Spaceship compares his Velocity to 140: Failure :( Combat: Space Shuttle compares his Velocity to 140: Failure :( Combat: Avarice compares his Velocity to 140: Failure :( Combat: Tech Spaceship compares his Velocity to 140: Failure :( Combat: Space Shuttle compares his Velocity to 140: Failure :( Combat: Avarice compares his Velocity to 140: Failure :( Combat: Tech Spaceship compares his Velocity to 140: Failure :( Combat: Space Shuttle compares his Velocity to 140: Failure :( Combat: Avarice compares his Velocity to 140: Failure :( Combat: Space Shuttle compares his Velocity to 140: Failure :( Combat: Avarice compares his Velocity to 140: Failure :( Combat: Tech Spaceship compares his Velocity to 135: Failure :( Combat: Avarice compares his Velocity to 135: Failure :( Combat: Space Shuttle compares his Velocity to 135: Failure :( Combat: Avarice compares his Velocity to 135: Failure :( Tailgate shrugs. "You invited me on board, said something about a scientific expedition!" He pauses. "I think that was yesterday..." He sits down, still watching the Decepticons from the space shuttle's window. "Aw, Jetfire, you're really forgetful sometimes, you know!" he says, holding onto his seat as he flies through. Combat: Avarice compares his Velocity to 130: Failure :( Combat: Tech Spaceship compares his Velocity to 130: Failure :( Combat: Space Shuttle compares his Velocity to 130: Failure :( Combat: Avarice compares his Velocity to 125: Failure :( Combat: Tech Spaceship compares his Velocity to 125: Failure :( Avarice leaps into the air, his wings folding around him as he reconfigures into a sweepcraft. Combat: Space Shuttle compares his Velocity to 125: Success! Sweepcraft flies right towards the finish line when he realizes that he forgot to transform! He quickly switches to his faster mode but the others are far ahead of him by now. He crosses the line and revet back to his robot mode. He doesn't look too happy but at least, the femmes are all over him...the beard does that. The sweepcraft splits open and unfold, revealing the sweep known as Avarice. "I did? Hmmm..." Jetfire tries to recall. "Ah, yes I did--I am so sorry Tailgate, I should have informed you that I was planning on attending this event." He speeds toward the finish line as the station goes up in hot gases, but unfortunately since he's carrying Tailgate, Blast Off manages to edge ahead of him. "Blast it! Well, here is a special gift for the winner, then!" A missile moves into place, and launches from the weapons bay straight at Blast Off's afterburners as he reaches the check point. Who cares if Ace notices, this race was just for show, anyway. Jetfire has much more important things to concern himself with. Such as crippling Decepticons, or at least giving them a run for their shanix. Combat: Tech Spaceship sets his defense level to Fearless. Combat: Tech Spaceship strikes Space Shuttle with his Heat-Seeking Missile attack! "Oh that's alright!" Tailgate says, cheerfully. "It's been pretty fun, anyway!" he says. The backfire from the missile jostles the minibot. "Ah!" He yelps. "Oh Jetfire, don't you think you should congratulate him?!" But then he sees who it is and shudders. "Oooh! Isn't that guy--nevermind I said that..." Space Shuttle goes rocketing through the hole in the forcefield, then his sensors pick up- and oncoming explosion?!? Great. Well, he can handle THAT, too. His FTL systems gear up for a sudden burst of extra speed to the last waypoint way up ahead...except then it's not way up ahead- now it's right behind him! The brown and purple shuttle goes soaring across the waypoint, twirling in a bit of a show-off mode as he does so. Yes, he's in a good mood. Great setting and high class people- well, for the most part. Then one of them exhibits a huge dose of sour grapes. Caught unawares, the shuttle experiences a missile strike against his fuselage. "Gahhh!" Already coming to a halt, the shuttle shudders, wobbling a bit as he comes to a rest, then transforming. "What the slag?" Ah- figures... the Autofool. "Sore loser, eh? Why am I not a bit surprised? You don't like that I showed you up, do you? Just like an Autofool- all talk of heroics- until things don't go your way! How positively ungracious of you. Some mechs have no class..." Slag, even Blast Off congratulated Blurr (sort of) when Blurr beat him in a race. But then again, Blast Off has *manners*. "Let me return the favor, then... Here's your consolation prize!" He brings out his ionic blaster, then shoots, turning as he does so and waving off the Autobot as if he's not worth any further bother. Blast Off shifts into his battle-ready robot mode. Dexter squeeks, "HEY! That's cheating! YOU'RE DISQUALI--GAAAHHHH!" And just before he can make his ruling, he's buffeted away by the station's explosion. Borf has enough time to look behind himself to reflect on his life decisions as the same explosion catches up to him. "Crap." Kimberly is at a landing pad back on Grand Central Station right behind the finish line, hips sashaying around. "Ooh, here comes the REAL Space Ace! Gimme a kiss, Blast Off!" She leans forward and puckers up. She doesn't appear to care that Blast Off just got blasted Combat: Blast Off strikes Tech Spaceship with his Consolation Prize attack! "Heh." Jetfire grins inwardly, quite enjoying Blast Off's reaction to the missile. "Not a sore loser, Blast Off. I already know I am much faster than you are--I just happened to be carrying a load, unfortunately. But driving missiles into your armor will suffice just as well!" he laughs, and launches another one, quite enjoying this. Combat: Tech Spaceship sets his defense level to Aggressive. Combat: Tech Spaceship strikes Blast Off with his Heat-Seeking Missile attack! Tailgate pokes his helm out of the space shuttle, optics wide, as if to prove Jetfire's point. He peers at the Decepticon for a moment. "Jetfire, I can help!" the minibot pipes up. Tailgate protoforms! Combat: Tailgate analyzes Blast Off for weaknesses Jetfire can exploit. Blast Off blinks as the fleshling female wants a...WHAT? He raises hands towards the girl in a "no thanks" posture. Ewwwwwwww... an organic wants to... touch him? NononononoDoNotWant. But of course, after all that talk of "class", he has to remain civil. "Uh, I...appreciate the offer, ...really." He doesn't quite sound as convincing as he's trying to sound. "But shouldn't you save that sort of affection for your...uh... what's that guy again?" He looks around for Space Ace to no avail. Jetfire then provides a distraction... of the wrong sort, and the shuttleformer is blasted again. He staggers forward, circuits sparking and some energon now leaking, then turns to look and glare at the Autofool. Slag... the much larger Autobot is, unfortunately, quite powerful and Blast Off isn't sure he really wants to tangle with him right now. Especially with the so-called truce in effect. Regarding that, Scorponok just announced on radio that "hostilities" will not be tolerated during the Olympics. But the final nail in the coffin is... when Tailgate pops up out of Jetfire's hold. OH SLAG. Again: NonononoDoNotWant. Remembering what happened last time Tailgate and he met on the field of battle- no, there are definitely other places he'd rather be right now. He turns to Kimberly, grabbing his Gold Medal. "Thank you, very kind of you, I shall be going now." He turns and narrows optics at the two Autobots. "Just remember this display of low class behavior the next time you try and tell me how "heroic" Autobots are..." With that, he transforms and flies off. Combat: Blast Off begins retreating, leaving himself vulnerable to parting shots from Tech Spaceship With a disdainful shrug, Blast Off transforms into a space shuttle. Jetfire watches contentedly as Blast Off grabs his medal and takes off in a less-than-glorified manner. "Thank you for the offer Tailgate, however, I believe we have humiliated him quite enough." he says, a smirk in his voice. "Now, let us return to Iacon." He then turns and quantum jumps back to Iacon. Combat: Tech Spaceship sets his defense level to Protected. Combat: Tech Spaceship begins retreating, outrunning all pursuit. You post your note about '2034 Space Race' in group 37 (2034 Olympics) as message #46